>Thanks, Jim!
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>>7) Continuation of BILINGUALISM - English and French - as applicable in Canada today.
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>This one, I am surprised by. What exactly is the rational for this?

I spent my first 30years in Quebec, 12 in a small town and 18 in Montreal. As a result I was fluently bilingual and you couldn't tell that I was English when I spoke (well, very close anyway < s >).
In any case, I found that when I came to Toronto I simply had a different thinking process than the people around me, and the only thing that I could/can attribute this to was my partially French upbringing (I guess that heavy French exposure might be more apt).
Another thing the (enforced) bilingualism does is to add a measure of patience and respect for people that are 'different'. The patience comes from small things that add up, like waiting for the French parts of phone systems or hearing the same thing twice in speeches or having the French label showing on shelves when you're looking for something specific or or watching a translated movie and the lips don't synch or...tons of other little things.
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SNIP